10 Superstars WCW Completely Wasted
1. Bret Hart
Just imagine, for a second, that you have signed the biggest, hottest star in the wrestling world. He's coming off a legendary run for your rival organisation, which he left amid a blaze of controversy. It was the most talked about incident in recent wrestling history. Everyone wants to know what happens next. They can't wait to see his next move.
You are WCW, it is late 1997 and you have signed Bret Hart to a long-term deal. He has had a massive public falling out with Vince McMahon, during which he punched the WWF owner in the face. This is a priceless situation, one where you can really do no wrong. It's foolproof.
So what do you do? Well, if you're Eric Bischoff and WCW, you have him come in as a guest referee for the bugled Sting versus Hogan match at Starrcade and then have him feud with Ric Flair, something that had already been seen in WWE six years earlier. From there, Bret became WCW World Heavyweight Champion and had good matches with Chris Benoit and Booker T, but it never looked as though WCW knew what to do with him.
They perhaps had too many headline acts, and Bret was viewed as a spare part. They wanted him and paid huge money to get him, but then they weren't sure how to best use him, so he floundered. Bret, for his part, never felt as though WCW treated him or his character with enough respect and resented working there, regardless of the size of his pay packet.
There were one or two highlights - the Owen Hart tribute match with Benoit and steel plate Spear angle with Goldberg come to mind - but, for the most part, Hart was wasted in WCW. His career was sadly all but ended at Starrcade 1999 when he received an errant kick to the head from Goldberg, resulting in post-concussion syndrome. It was a sad end to what had been a legendary career.
The Hitman was still a game talent in WCW, regardless of what others may have claimed publicly. His matches with Benoit, Booker, Sting and others attest to that. It was WCW's fault for not getting the most out of their investment and letting his talent go to waste.